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This blog is to express my own understanding of organizational and real-life phenomena that I find interesting. I was in the software industry as an engineer and a manager for nearly 15 years before I moved out to Organization Development (OD). I was attracted to OD because I realised if we got the people factor right, other things would fall into place. What I love doing apart from helping clients in their business, is to listen to music, play table tennis, cycling and reading non-fiction

Do Shared Goals Help ?

Definition. Shared Goals are goals or purpose held commonly by a group of people to which they are committed.

A recent
engagement with participants of the TISS Winter School in OD for the social
sector brought a very interesting aspect of organisations to the fore – that of
having a common cause or a shared goal that will connect them together and
energize them.

In almost
all the social enterprises where the OD students were involved in fieldwork,
they experienced the employees and volunteers of these enterprises as very
passionate about what they were doing. "We could literally see the spark and
passion in their eyes” were the words used by the OD students as they shared their
experiences. Most of the NGOs concerned here had minimal resources at their
disposal – funds, human resources, office space, etc. And they work with people who face poverty,
abuse, unemployment, domestic violence, and many such issues that could be
emotionally stressful and draining.

In spite of the environment in which the
employees and volunteers worked, it was heartening and at the same time, surprising
to hear that they were very passionate about the work they did. However it did
not take much time to realise that when people are identified with a common
cause – which in most of these cases are about helping others – they find an inherent
energy and motivation to work towards it.

This realisation
also automatically makes us think of for-profit organizations – where most
often than not we find people working in environments of adequate availability
of different resources. Employees have rewards and remuneration tied to the profits
the organization makes. Organizations which are more profitable and powerful
face little difficulty in acquiring the resources they need. In spite of
resource surplus, leaders of these organizations are always looking for newer
and novel ways to engage and motivate their employees. We also come across
situations where some employees are not satisfied with the rewards and
facilities and they demand for more.

Many of the for-profit
organizations indeed have common vision and mission statements. But do these vision
and mission statements energize their employees to bring in their best ? Even
when organizations go beyond mere statements and try to enact their purpose,
are they successful in getting commitment from the people ?

I ponder
here on the phenomenon of shared goals in corporates with some questions :

Will shared goals such as becoming numero uno
in the market or capturing a certain percentage of the market share or achieving
an x% revenue growth be compelling enough to buy people’s commitment ?

The shared goals of a typical
non-profit body is aimed at ‘helping’ its beneficiaries, be it in providing
monetary support, emotional support (eg., counselling), employment, providing
shelter or skill building. Most of the employees of these organizations engage
themselves in a ‘helping’ relationship with the members of the society they are
serving. In for-profit organizations, what is the nature of this relationship –
is it one of serving/helping or is it merely transactional ?

While one of the primary motives of
for-profit organizations is to create profit, how may we shift our perspectives
from a transactional relationship to that of a ‘serving’ one ?

Even as we are engaged in creating
profit for our companies, can we look at the shared goals for ‘creating’
something new for ourselves and customers ?

Will taking the perspective from
point 3 above help in working with point 4 ? That is, if we are to look at our
relationships with our customers as that of helping, will we become better at
creating more and new ways to serve them ?

Finally , is the shared goal really a
‘shared’ by all people ? What was the process used to create the goal ? Was it merely
top-down or were the people involved in creating it ? Would you be happy with
shared goals that buy commitment rather than just compliance ?

Inspired by :

1.TISS OD Winter School Program and
participants

2.The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

3.Humble Consulting by Edgar Schein

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